Mohammad Shoair collects reactions to the news that the Kuwait Book Fair, has banned 120 Egyptian books Ã¢â¬â among them works by Gamal El-Ghitani, Khairy Shalaby and Alaa al Aswani. The publishers responded with reserve; the writers with indignation: "Galal Amin, for one, feels that the banning of his autobiography may be understandable in the light of its content: 'In my book I spoke of the years I spent in Kuwait, and perhaps they are sensitive about this.' Yet there is never any justification for banning a book, he insists. 'Such custody over the minds of the people is unacceptable.' Yet the novelist Khairy Shalaby is even more incensed: 'What is there in my book that could offend the censor? What is there in Ibrahim Aslan's book 'Two Rooms and a Hall'? It is about the relation between two spouses: the wife dies and the husband remains alone.' For Shalaby a book fair that bans this many books gives up its credibility as a book fair."

Further articles: Ati Metwaly reviews a production of "The Marriage of Figaro" at the Cairo Opera (with an angry aside to the director Abdalla Saad: This opera is "witty; it pulsates with motion; it is full not only of satire and laughter but also of intelligence!")

Exercising the sort of self-control one would expect from a professor of law, Lawrence Lessigtakes a scalpel to the Facebook film "The Social Network". The writer Aaron Sorkin, who boasted in interviews about having no clue about the Internet - has missed the point about the Facebook story. It's not about the boy wonder Mark Zuckerberg, it's not even about the idea of a social network. It's about the fact that Zuckerberg could set the thing in motion for less than 1,000 dollars and without having to ask permission from providers, universities, institutions or commercial companies - because the Internet is free and open. "The tragedy - small in the scale of things, no doubt - of this film is that practically everyone watching it will miss this point. Practically everyone walking out will think they understand genius on the Internet. But almost none will have seen the real genius here. And that is tragedy because just at the moment when we celebrate the product of these two wonders - Zuckerberg and the Internet - working together, policymakers are conspiring ferociously with old world powers to remove the conditions for this success. As 'network neutrality' gets bargained away - to add insult to injury, by an administration that was elected with the promise to defend it - the opportunities for the Zuckerbergs of tomorrow will shrink. And as they do, we will return more to the world where success depends upon permission. And privilege. And insiders. And where fewer turn their souls to inventing the next great idea."

The Slovenian author Drago Jancar explains in the Polish Gazeta Wyborcza (translatedinto English by Salon), why the Slovenian critique of Andrzej Wajda's film "Katyn" was either non-existent or extremely restrained. Because the film touches on a Slovenian trauma: the murders of thousands of Slovenians by the communists shortly after the end of WWII. "It's true that members of the Slovenian territorial army, notorious nationalists and anticommunists, were driven by their opposition to communism to collaborating with the German occupying forces during the war. Many would have deserved to be prosecuted and punished. But those of us who claim allegiance to the anti-Fascist and resistance tradition cannot accept the pointless and horrible belief, still surviving in a part of Slovenian society, that the murdered ones received 'just' punishment. As early as in the 1970s, after the poetEdvard Kocbek was almost lynched for having publicly spoken about these horrific events and expressing a very public remorse, the Nobel Prize winner Heinrich Böll said in KocbekÃ¢â¬Ës defence that nothing can justify unlawfully committed mass murder."

Ghizlaine Khairi reports on the end of the Moroccan weeklyNichane, which opened in 2006 as the Arabic arm of the magazineTelQuel. Alongside the legal persecution of critical journalists, it was a year-long advertising boycott that signed the death warrant for the magazine. "The crippling advertising boycott against Nichane is by no means unique in the Moroccan media world. The strategy is essentially a government policy which is used against any publication that is regarded as 'disruptive' ... The message is clear: every publication which crosses the 'red line' will be blocked. If at the start of the King Mohammed VI's regency a number of observers talked about a journalistic spring in Morocco, the situation today is significantly more sinister."

"Hungary's liberal democracy is being turned into a totalitarian democracy in front of our very eyes," writes philosopher Agnes Heller, without a hint of surprise. Because this is the direction Hungarian democracy has been taking for 20 years. "In Romania, Poland and even Czechoslovakia, the post-communist transition was brought about through the will of the citizens... And here? Opposition and state parties sat around the round table, making agreements. And where were the citizens? Sitting at home watching TV while everything passed over their heads. Why would they now regard the endangered constitution as anything to do with them? The Hungarian citizens have never learned to honour their constitution, they are not concerned about its contents, now or in the future. We are all responsible for this state of affairs. [...] Entrenchment in a political camp has become the sole criteria for political thought; blame and slander of the the opposition or their motives, a knee-jerk reaction. So why are we acting so surprised that we now have to pay the price? It is meagre consolation that the current government will also have to pay the price for its mistakes Ã¢â¬â political sins and errors have to be paid for in this world Ã¢â¬â because this price will be paid by the entire country."

The Facebookfilmconfirms Laurie Penny's suspicions that modern capitalism is the product of frustrated men who couldn't get a girlfriend in college. "'The Social Network' is the reminder that a resource that re-defined the human interactions of five hundred million people across the globe was germinated in an act of vengeful misogyny. Woman-hating is the background noise of this story. Aaron Sorkin's dazzlingly scripted showdown between awkward, ambitious young men desperate for wealth and respect phrases women and girls as glorified sexual extras, lovely assistants in the grand trick whose reveal is the future of human business and communication."

Filmmaker Erik Gandini ("Videocracy") talks in an interview with Daniel Trilling about Berlusconi and his TV state: "Italy is not a fascist country but if there is something totalitarian in our culture, it's in a very modern way. This celebrity culture has created a system of values which is actually a system of non-values where nothing really matters. I don't think Lele Mora is a politically convinced fascist, I think he's more an example of lack of ideology rather than ideology and that is even more scary because in Italy now I think the core of this culture is the pressure to always be having fun."

All hell broke loose over Sakineh Ashtani but no one said a word about Teresa Lewis. If we are against the death penalty for alleged adulteresses, then we should also have saved a woman who organised the killing of her husband and stepson, blustersUmberto Eco in his Bustina column. "I would like to know whether all the defenders of the west, among them a veritable French first lady, rushed to protest against the American death penalty as they did the Iranian one. I imagine the answer is no, if only because the death penalty is dealt out in the USA Ã¢â¬â not to mention China Ã¢â¬â with such reguarity that we have grown accostomed to it, whereas the idea of a woman being stoned to death carries much greater impact. I have to admit that when I was asked to sign the protest against the stoning of the Iranian woman, I did so immediately, without knowing that at the same time, a woman in Virginia was being killed. Would we still have protested if the Iranian woman had been sentenced to death by a peacefullethal injection? Are we upset about the stoning or the fact that someone is being killed for violating not the fifth but the sixth commandment? I'm not sure, but I do know that our reactions are often instinctive and irrational."

Dawn reports on the dire state of the textile industry in Pakistan after the floods. Europe and America are too busy trying to save their own industries to worry about anyone else: "Pakistan has allies, including the US Chamber of Commerce, that want to expand the reconstruction zone legislation to cover the entire country, or at least the area hit by the floods. Such proposals face stiff opposition from the American textile and apparel industry, which has lost more than 250,000 jobs Ã¢â¬â more than one-third of its work force Ã¢â¬â since 2004, according to the National Council of Textile Organizations. 'At a time when America is struggling to recover from the worst economic downturn in 80 years, and with national unemployment at historic levels, the last thing that the Obama administration should consider is a proposal that destroys critical manufacturing jobs,' US textile industry groups said in a Sept. 1 letter opposing the US chamber's call for expanding the legislation in light of the floods."

Further articles: Tehmina Khaled reports on a proud moment at the Bridal Asia 2010 in New Delhi: "Where Indian designers lack innovation and style, their counterparts in Pakistan are busy creating new cuts, silhouettes and patterns. Sonya Battla's innovative draping, the flowing and seductive cuts of Sana Safinaz and Shehla Rehman, the versatile silhouettes of Rizwan Beyg and Umar Sayeed all speak volumes about creativity and talent."

New writing from Pakistan is the focus of the current Granta magazine. Online four of the contributors, Mohsin Hamid, Mohammed Hanif, Daniyal Mueenuddin and Kamila Shamsieinform anyone toying with the idea, how to write about Pakistan: "Pakistan is just like India, except when it's just like Afghanistan. (Has anyone else noticed how we seem to have geographically shifted from being a side-thought of the subcontinent to a major player in the Greater Middle East? Is this progress?) It will become clear whether the Pakistan of our work is Indo-Pak or Af-Pak depending on whether the cover has paisleydesigns orbombs/minarets/menacing men in shalwar kameezes (there are no other kinds of men in shalwar kameezes.) If women are on the cover, then the two possible Pakistans are expressed through choice of clothing: is it bridal wear or burkhas? On the subject of women, they never have agency. Unless they break all the rules, in which case they're going to end up dead. I don't think there's anything elseto be said about them, is there?"

In an essay Azhar Abidi travels through the Swat valley and tries to determine when the circle of violence in the area began. 1947? 1979? "Alexander the Great rampaged through Afghanistan in 330 B.C.; Genghis Khan laid waste to it in 1221. Timur (Tamburlaine of Marlowe) was drawing blood there five hundred years before Queen Victoria. After that, it was Brezhnev's turn, followed by Tony Blair and Bush, et al. Perhaps there is no year zero."

With obvious pleasure Marina Warner reads Laurie Maquire's literary biography of Helen of Troy, which traces her manifold renderings from Ancient Greece to Hollywood: "Amid all these normative uses of Helen of Troy and her changes of shape, itÃ¢â¬â¢s easy to forget the irreducible strangeness of Greek stories. It remains an unfailing source of wonder Ã¢â¬â and perplexity Ã¢â¬â how brilliantly they imagined things and how ingeniously they constructed a possible reality. The egg from which Helen was hatched used to be displayed in the temple of her brothers Castor and Pollux (they came out of the second egg produced by the union of Leda and Zeus) on the island of Corfu. Pausanias tells us he travelled there and saw the shell hanging over the altar, tied up in ribbons. The only relic of Helen on earth was probably a dinosaur egg."

Further articles: James Lever, who obviously knows his Franzen, is not denying that "Freedom" is well written and has its moments of brilliance. The overall effect, however, is of TV: "a pleasantly classy mini-series, taking its time, with mild cliffhangers". David Runciman readsTony Blair's memoirs as the self-confessions of a man who failed by trying to control something he believed he could control but which could never be controlled. There is also a review of Abbas Kiarostami's new film "Certified Copy" starring Juliette Binoche, which was pure torture for Michael Wood even it was intended that way (three excerpts).

Tuesday 27 March, 2012

The Republicans are waging a war against women, the New York Magazine declares. Perhaps it's because women are so unabashed about reading porn in public - that's according to publisher Beatriz de Moura in El Pais Semanal, at least. Polityka remembers Operation Reinhard. Tensions are growing between Poland and Hungary as Victor Orban spreads his influence, prompting ruminations on East European absurdity from both Elet es Irodalom and salon.eu.sk. Wired is keeping its eyes peeled on the only unassuming sounding Utah Data Center.read more

Tuesday 20 March, 2012

In Telerama, Benjamin Stora grabs hold of the Algerian boomerang. In Eurozine, Slavenka Drakulic tells the Venetians that they should be very scared of Chinese money. Bela Tarr tells the Frankfurter Rundschau and the Berliner Zeitung that his "Turin Horse", which ends in total darkness was not intended to depress. In die Welt, historian Dan Diner cannot agree with Timothy Snyder's "Bloodlands": National Socialism was not like Communism - because of Auschwitz.
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Tuesday 13 March, 2012

In Perfil author Martin Kohn explains why Argentina would be less
Argentinian if it won back the Falklands. In Il sole 24 ore, Armando
Massarenti describes the Italians as a pack of illiterates sitting atop a
treasure trove. Polityka introduces the Polish bestseller of the season:
Danuta Walesa's autobiography. L'Express looks into the state of
Japanese literature one year after Fukushima.
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Tuesday 6 March, 2012

In Merkur,Stephan Wackwitz muses on poetry and absurdity in Tiflis. Outlook India happens on the 1980s Indian answer to "The Artist". Bloomberg Businessweek climbs into the cuckoo's nest with the German Samwar brothers. Salon.eu.sk learns how to line the pockets of a Slovenian politician. In the Süddeutsche Zeitung, Navid Kermanireports back impressed from the Karachi Literature Festival. read more

Tuesday 21 February, 2012

The New Republic sees a war being waged in the USA against women's rights. For Rue89, people who put naked women on the front page of a newspaper should not be surprised if they go to jail. In Elet es Irodalom, historian Mirta Nunez Daaz-Balart explains why the wounds of the Franco regime never healed. In Eurozine, Stephen Holmes and Ivan Krastev see little in common between the protests in Russia and those in the Arab world.
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Tuesday 7 February, 2012

Poland's youth have taken to the streets to protest against Acta and Donald Tusk has listened, Polityka explains. Himal and the Economist report on the repression of homosexuality in the Muslim world. Outlook India doesn't understand why there will be no "Dragon Tattoo" film in India. And in Eurozine, Slavenka Drakulic looks at how close the Serbs are to eating grass.
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Tuesday 31 January, 2012

In the French Huffington Post, philosopher Catherine Clement explains why the griot Youssou N'Dour had next to no chance of becoming Senegal's president. Peter Sloterdijk (in Le Monde) and Umberto Eco (in Espresso) share their thoughts about forgetting. Al Ahram examines the post-electoral depression of Egypt's young revolutionaries. And in Eurozine, Kenan Malik defends freedom of opinion against those who want the world to go to sleep.
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Tuesday 24 January, 2012

Il Sole Ore weeps at the death of a laughing Vincenzo Consolo. In Babelia, Javier Goma Lanzon cries: Praise me, please! Osteuropa asks: Hungaria, quo vadis? The newborn French Huffington Post heralds the birth of the individual in the wake of the Arab Spring. Outlook India is infuriated by the cowardliness of Indian politicians in the face of religious fanatics.
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Tuesday 17 January, 2012

In Nepszabadsag the dramatist György Spiro recognises 19th century France in Hungary today. Peter Nadas, though, in Lettre International and salon.eu.sk, is holding out hope for his country's modernisation. In Open Democracy, Boris Akunin and Alexei Navalny wish Russia was as influential as America - or China. And in Lettras Libras, Peter Hamill compares Mexico with a mafia film by the Maquis de Sade.
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Tuesday 10 January, 2012

Are books about to become a sort of author-translator wiki, asks Il Sole 24 Ore. Rue 89 reports on the "Tango Wars" in downtown Buenos Aires. Elet es Irodalom posits a future for political poetry. In Merkur, Mikhail Shishkin encounters Russian pain in Switzerland. Die Welt discovers the terror of the new inside the collapse of the old in Andrea Breth's staging of Isaak Babel's "Maria". And Poetry Foundation waits for refugees in Lampedusa. read more

Tuesday 13 December, 2011

Andre Glucksman in Tagesspiegel looks at the impact of the Putinist plague on Russia and Europe. In Letras Libras Martin Caparros celebrates the Kindle as book. György Dalos has little hope that Hungary's intellectuals can help get their country out of the doldrums. Le Monde finds Cioran with his head up the skirt of a young German woman. The NYT celebrates the spread of N'Ko,the West African text messaging alphabet.read more